Egypt's First Civilian President Takes Oath Of Office

An image grab taken from Egypt's Nile TV shows Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi (center) taking the oath of office during the official swearing-in ceremony at the Constitutional Court in Cairo on Saturday.

In this handout picture made available by the Egyptian presidency, Egypt's Islamist president-elect Mohamed Morsi addresses tens of thousands of Egyptians in Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square on Friday.

AFP/Getty Images

Originally published on June 30, 2012 6:51 am

Egypt swore in its first civilian president today. The Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi took the oath before the Constitutional Court.

Before the official oath, however, Morsi preempted the swearing-in ceremony by appearing before thousands of supporters in Tahrir Square on Friday and taking a symbolic one.

Military generals have been holding on to power since former President Hosni Mubarak's ouster in February 2011. They called for Morsi to take the oath of office in front of Mubarak-appointed judges on Egypt's highest court. Initially, the Brotherhood and protesters pushed back, The New York Times says.

"But on Friday it became clear that Mr. Morsi had agreed to take his formal oath in front of the court Saturday morning and that his Tahrir Square speech was in part an effort to distract from that agreement."

The location of the official ceremony wasn't the only recent show of authority by the military. Earlier this month, a declaration was passed to push many presidential powers to the military. The Nation says "the Supreme Council of Armed Forces has assumed near-full control of all of the key branches of state."

Morsi tried to assert his power Friday, The Associated Press reports, with a "strongly worded speech [that] was a show of defiance as he gears up to [a] power struggle with the country's ruling generals."

As he takes office, the new president will not have a parliament. Egypt's highest court ruled to dissolve the popularly elected parliament, we reported, which the Brotherhood had dominated. The move came less than a week before the presidential runoff election two weeks ago.